Steinberg The Grand

The Grand is a VST Instrument devoted to providing the sound of a Concert
Grand Piano in the self-contained, pristine environment of your computer.
Its sounds are based on the sampled/modeled sounds of a real Grand Piano. As a
result it takes up over 1.3 GB of disk space! It also uses a large chunk
of RAM (you can adjust how much sample is streamed from disk or loaded
into RAM). If you want that real piano sound instantly accessible and
flexible enough to use in your computer sequencer, The Grand is an
affordable good deal! It is available for both Mac and PC platforms with VST 2.0
compatible host applications.

The initial screen you see when you open an instance of The Grand is of
the keyboard. You can click on the keys to play notes (or use MIDI
instruments connected to your computer). The Grand's 88-key keyboard
emulates many of the characteristics of an acoustic piano. There are
three weighted key settings to choose from and adjustable velocity
curves individually adaptable to suit your personal playing style.
Authentic functionality of sustain and sostenuto pedals is also built-in
with real re-pedaling resonance.

There are a couple options for shaping your Grand Piano sounds. There are
four basic Piano sounds: Natural, Soft, Bright, and Hard. A simple
Ambience effect can be dialed-in, adding a little reverb to sweeten' the
sound. There are also hammer and string release parameters for
authentic-sounding damper and hammer action, adjustable polyphony and
tuning, tempered and grand concert piano tunings. The Grand succeeds in
creating a darn good piano, rich in sound and with enough
editability to give you a broad range of feeling. Unfortunately,
The Grand does not attempt to go beyond emulating the piano sound, so
there are no LFOs, no filters, nothing that can really modulate or
change the sound. Just rich, clean piano sounds instantly available and
with simple programmability. It's a great tool for composers who don't
want to deal with the troubles and expense of a real concert grand,
and it's easier to use than any sampler.